Tennis: Henin and Hewitt beat rain delays

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt serves to France's Mathieu Montcourt during their match last night. Picture / Reuters

An edgy Justine Henin-Hardenne slithered into the French Open third round today when rain again badly disrupted the schedule at the claycourt Grand Slam tennis championships.

Men's seeds Lleyton Hewitt, Ivan Ljubicic and Tommy Robredo also progressed but Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez were beaten in five sets on a day when downpours caused two hours of play to be lost.

As a result, the second round matches of defending men's champion Rafael Nadal, Henin-Hardenne's fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters and 12th seed Martina Hingis were postponed until tonight (NZ time) when better weather is forecast.

On her 24th birthday, women's defending champion Henin-Hardenne was short of her best in a 6-2 7-5 victory over 19-year-old Anastasiya Yakimova, of Belarus, played in steadily worsening conditions.

The match looked certain to go into a decisive third set when Yakimova held three set points at 5-4, 40-0 in the second set.

However Henin-Hardenne saved all three, the last with an audacious drop shot that left Yakimova sprawling in the mud.

The Belgian fifth seed, who also won the claycourt Grand Slam in 2003, sealed victory two games later when Yakimova sent a wild forehand long as rain tumbled on to centre court.

"It's like November in Belgium. It's really amazing. I don't remember spending my birthday in weather like this," Henin-Hardenne said.

"It's difficult conditions for everybody. It's not pleasant even for the crowd. We're running around on the court, but I think in the stands they're freezing."

Henin-Hardenne faces a difficult third round match against Italy's Tathiana Garbin, who knocked eliminated her in the second round when she was the defending champion here in 2004.

A demoralised Baghdatis lost 3-6 6-4 6-3 6-7 6-4 to France's Julien Benneteau.

The Cypriot, seeded 19th, has suffered from injury and illness since losing to Roger Federer in Melbourne in January.

He saved two match points in the fourth set before forcing a fifth but Benneteau, ranked 95th, proved the stronger in the decider.

"It's been tough for me after Australia, a lot of questions in my head, a lot of doubts," Baghdatis said.

"I'm thinking about what people think, what people will say. I don't feel at ease."

Gonzalez, seeded ninth, beat former world No 1 Marat Safin in the first round but he was undone by 19-year-old Serbian Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-1 3-6 4-6 6-1.

Men's 14th seed Hewitt saved a set point before beating Frenchman Mathieu Montcourt 7-5 6-3 6-3.

The Australian showed little sign of his ankle problem and if the former world No 1 wins his third round match, he is in line to meet Nadal in round four.

"Coming in here a week ago I wasn't sure if I'd be able to play, so it's obviously good to be through to the third round," said Hewitt, twice a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros.

"I haven't wasted a lot of energy so far, got matches under my belt. We'll see what happens from here, though."

Spanish seventh seed Robredo completed a four-set win over Serbian Ilia Bozoljac, having led by two sets overnight.

Ljubicic, the Croatian men's fourth seed, outpowered Spanish qualifier Oscar Hernandez 6-3 6-7 6-1 6-2.

Parisian teenager Gael Monfils matched his best Grand Slam performance so far by reaching round three with a five-set win over lofty Belgian Dick Norman.

British involvement in the singles ended, however, when Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who had led by two sets overnight, completed a 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 victory over Tim Henman.

Russia's 2004 champion Anastasia Myskina moved through but sixth seed Elena Dementieva, the Russian she beat in that final, was in trouble 1-5 down in the first set against Ukrainian 17-year-old Viktoriya Kutuzova when bad light halted play for the day.

- REUTERS